what is clean code

It seems like the definition of "clean code" changes over time. Code written 10 years ago is likely to be longer and have more in a method. At the time it would be considered "clean." In the same way, I wince when I see what I wrote 5 years ago. I'm curious what other examples people have of this scenario.

Congrats to the authors. It is currently ranked #155 on Amazon #1 in computer books. A great effort and a topic that is close to many developers' heart. Well done. [ September 24, 2008: Message edited by: arulk pillai ]

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny - it is the light that guides your way. - Heraclitus

Well, I think that the basis of clean code is that your code should be readable & maintainable by others with ease. Five years ago we didn't have a lot of what we had today, and hence a lot of code was written that could now be summarized to just one tenth of its size using pre-written reusable libraries. Also a lot of methodologies did not exist (or at least were not widely known) back then.